What Katy Did (Children's Classics): Amazon.co.uk: Susan Coolidge: 9781853261312: Books What Katy Did (Children's Classics) Add all three to Basket Buy the selected items together This item:What Katy Did (Children's Classics) by Susan Coolidge Paperback Â£1.99 In stock. Sent from and sold by Amazon. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£10. Details Sent from and sold by Amazon. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£10. Details Heidi (Children's Classics) by Johanna Spyri Paperback Â£1.99 In stock. Sent from and sold by Amazon. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£10. Details Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Apple To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. or Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . Product details Publisher: Wordsworth Editions; New edition edition (5 Mar. 1994) Language: English Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 1.1 x 19.8 cm Average Customer Review: Product Description Review Those who enjoy Jodie will turn with interest to Laurel Lefkow's spirited reading of Susan Coolidge's What Katy Did, not only because of the heroines' similarities, but because it opens such a vivid window into a domestic world that we have lost: full of aunts and cousins, innumerable siblings and clearly drawn moralities. Abridgement has meant a loss of detail, but has made the book work better for a modern audience. --Christina Hardyment, The Times Book Description The boisterous, tall, unstoppable Katy Carr will win your heart in her struggle to become good --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. By Tori on 14 Nov. 2004 Format: Hardcover Katy's tale could so easily have been preachy.

Set in 1860s USA it's about a thoughtless, careless, happy girl who has a terrible accident. As she learns to live with pain and with not being able to walk, she also learns how to be patient and loving. However, the lessons are interspersed with annecdotes about Katy and her family. These are so alive and colourful that I am sure they must be partly true! There's the time Katy befriends a counterfeiter's wife; an important visitor finds and reads aloud Katy's story about Bop the blue poodle and Lady Edwitha of the Hebrides; and her sister Johnny's 'baby', a chair named Pikery falls ill and must be dosed with stolen medicine. I love the underlying message, which is that good deeds begin at home - think globally, act locally. After Katy falls ill, she lies in bed fretting that she will never be able to perform all the great deeds she hoped to do. However she learns that she can make a difference to her family and friends. I love the honesty of it - although at the end Katy is adored by her family, she is still sometimes headstrong and impatient, and there are times when she must work at being good.

I loved the fact that her change has not consumed the joyous, impetuous part of her and there are still merry times after the accident. I would love to know what a person who has suffered a similar disablement thinks of this story. Similar reads are L M Mongomery's Anne and Emily books, Laura Ingalls Wilder's pioneering stories and Louisa M Alcott's Little Women. By JRW on 19 Dec. 2010 Format: Paperback Katy Carr is a twelve year-old girl, a tomboy who lives in a small house with her father, aunt and five younger brothers and sisters. At first, the book appears to be about growing up; with the plays, antics and misadventures of Katy, her siblings and friend Cecy Hall. The cheerful tone present early in the story is swiftly replaced about halfway through after a tragic incident which makes the book take a darker outlook and it becomes a nail-biting page turner. Well-written with great supporting characters including severe yet kindly Aunt Izzie, the siblings: Clover, Elsie, Dorry, John and Phil, each with a unique personality and my favourite character, the Carr children's sickly yet wise and patient Cousin Helen.

If you have read and enjoyed similar books such as Little Women or Anne of Green Gables, you should give this a try. A light read of about 200 pages with a good message to it - but parents buying this book for a child should read it first and then decide for themselves whether their child will be able to cope with the slightly dark, melancholy and sad second half. Comment 13 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By Laura Crook on 14 Oct. 2011 Format: Kindle Edition I remember loving this book when I was little and my copy was so worn out, yet all I could remember of it as an adult was Katy falling off a swing at some point. It is a kids book but not so much that you can't enjoy reading it. Definitely a good quick read that doesn't take much effort. If you read this years ago, get it for your Kindle and enjoy your childhood memories coming back to you. Comment 5 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By Mrs O on 7 May 2011 Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase When I saw that the series of five 'Katy' books was available for the Kindle, I downloaded them at once; as an added bonus, some of them were free. My old books were much-loved and read and reread and, many years after they went to a charity shop or a jumble sale, to read them once again was a lovely reminder of childhood. They are well-written, and not so aimed at children that a forty-something-year-old got bored. Comment 7 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By PGM on 29 Jun. 2014 Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase I remember reading this novel as a child and loved it just as much the second time around! Katy is a tomboy of a girl who finds herself in trouble very often, though not through trying. She is the eldest of the Carr children and the reader will soon fall in love with this realistic character, foibles and all.

After an accident she has to learn some major life lessons, mainly patience and how to live with pain. Her family are very dear to her, despite her being difficult to live with for some time after her accident but she learns her lessons well and is able to be an important member of her family, despite being bedridden. A lovely story, still appealing although written in 1872. Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again Book Review: What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge | Pretty Books Book Review: What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge More: Goodreads I came across What Katy Did while browsing bookshelves at The Works (and I also bought What Katy Did at School & What Katy Did Next and Little Women & Good Wives, all Wordsworth Classics editions). I knew nothing about What Katy Did, which seems to be a relatively unknown children’s classic. I thought it would be similar to books such as Betsy-Tacy and Milly-Molly-Mandy but for a slightly older age group, which it is. At first.

Katy Carr is a spontaneous and playful 12-year-old who is the storytelling queen to her little brothers and sisters – Clover, Dorry, Joanna (also known as John or Johnnie), young Elsie, and baby Phil – because she is the oldest of the six. Mother Carr died when Katy was eight, leaving her in charge of her young siblings. But Katy is always getting into some sort of trouble, whether it’s because she has been talking in class or because she has broken a new vase given to her as a gift. She tears her clothes because she’s always rushing to be somewhere else, somewhere more fun. Katy is not inconsiderate or malicious, just a little careless! She’s a young girl who is full of ambition yet often makes mistakes – although is always a little cheeky about it. I thought Katy was a feisty, stand-out character whose personality really shone through, and I thought the fun childish antics would continue throughout the story, such as playing Kikeri – a game similar to hide and seek – in the dark even though her family has banned the game. When Katy is involved in an accident, the novel (unexpectedly!) gets a little darker.

Katy is left dejected and feeling helpless until cousin Helen, who is unable to walk, pays a visit and offers Katy hope and some much needed advice. And yes, it may be old-fashioned and out-dated advice, but then again the novel is 141 years old! I admired the positive outlook of this unexpected (because I failed to read the synopsis first!) twist. And although I do not feel the accident would have the same impact today, meaning that it’s actually even sadder in hindsight, its upbeat attitude meant that I still became wrapped up in Katy’s world. What Katy Did is a delightful children’s classic that manages to be charming yet poignant in an unexpected way. I did not expect it to be so moving and the ending wraps up nicely, leading, I imagine, straight onto the next book: What Katy Did at School. If you’re looking to branch out into children’s fiction and for something a little more unknown, but still worth the read, it’s the perfect book. It’s full of everything I enjoy about old children’s books with but a serious side too. If you have an e-reader you should be able to download it for free , but there’s many beautiful print editions available .

Next up is Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery! Share this: Jacqueline Wilson on What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge: 'It's a wonderful book' | Children's books | The Guardian My inspiration Jacqueline Wilson on What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge: 'It's a wonderful book' What Katy Did thrilled Jacqueline Wilson when she was growing up but the attitudes to disability left something to be desired. And that’s why the author of Tracey Beaker and Hetty Feather has written a modern version: Katy My inspiration Jacqueline Wilson on What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge: 'It's a wonderful book' What Katy Did thrilled Jacqueline Wilson when she was growing up but the attitudes to disability left something to be desired. And that’s why the author of Tracey Beaker and Hetty Feather has written a modern version: Katy Share on Messenger Close I first read What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge when I was eight years old. It was one of my all time favourite books. I reread it at least 10 times during my childhood – and when my daughter Emma was eight I read it to her too. She could obviously read it for herself by that age, but it was fun to share it. She loved it too.

It’s a wonderful book, very easy to read, even though it was published in the 19th century. It’s a very lively funny story about six children, looked after by their kindly doctor father and an exasperated maiden aunt. Where are all the disabled characters in children's books? Read more Katy is the oldest, a headstrong tomboy forever getting into scrapes. But then halfway through the book she has a terrible accident (all her own fault) and becomes an invalid, unable to walk. She’s very angry and wretched at first, but her Cousin Helen helps her come to terms with things and to learn to be good and patient and kind, a little mother to her younger siblings. And at the end – surprise, surprise - Katy learns to walk again. Emma and I enjoyed discussions about the six Carr children and Katy’s friend Cecy; we felt sorry for poor Elsie the odd one out; we laughed at Dorry’s diary; we were shocked by Katy’s tragic accident – and we both decided the St Nicholas and St Valentine chapter was our absolute favourite. We disagreed about Cousin Helen. Emma thought her a wonderfully romantic glamorous invalid.

I found Helen rather too preachy and saintly, especially when she started talking about “God’s School of Pain.” I remember even as a child thinking it was horribly unfair that you were supposed to change your whole personality and become positively angelic if you became an invalid. What are the best retellings and sequels of classic books for kids? Read more When I got older, writing my own children’s books, I thought of all those other children’s classics featuring a child in a wheelchair. Clara in Heidi breathes in the fresh air of the mountains and learns to walk again. Colin in The Secret Garden breathes in his fair share of fresh air too when Mary and Dickon wheel him to the special garden and soon he’s up and out of his wheelchair as well. I thought of all the real children in wheelchairs reading these books, wondering why religion and fresh air weren’t working miracles for them too. I decided that one day I might try to write a modern version of What Katy Did . I’d invent my own family of six children, with a contemporary naughty tomboy Katy as the oldest sister.

I wanted the children to have all kinds of fun, though Katy is often in trouble with her stepmother (children are rarely brought up by maiden aunts nowadays). My Katy would have a similar terrible accident, just like the Katy in the original book. But then my story would be very different. I wanted to show what life is really like for children with serious spinal injuries. I didn’t want any sudden unlikely miracle cures for my Katy. She’d have to learn to lead a very different life now. She wouldn’t need to be saintly – she’d need to be tough if she was going to cope. Pinterest So now I’ve written my book, simply called Katy . But I didn’t want it to be a very sad book with an unhappy ending. There are still lots of light-hearted moments and I hope you’ll find the last chapter positive and uplifting. I try hard with all my books, but I think I’ve tried hardest of all with Katy . The original wonderful What Katy Did was a marvelous inspiration. Win a signed copy of Katy We have five copies of Jacqueline Wilson’s new book Katy to give away to five lucky readers. And they are signed by Jacqueline Wilson herself.

Please read the Ts and Cs first and then email us childrens.books@theguardian.com by Monday 17 August with “Jacqueline Wilson’s Katy” as your title telling us why you should win. Entrants should be aged between five and 18, or entering on behalf of a child. Please include your name, age, and postal address; if you are under 16 you must also include the name, contact telephone number and email address of your parent or guardian. Winners will be selected by way of a random draw from all entries received before the closing date. Good luck! Susan Coolidge (Author of What Katy Did) edit data Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge. Woolsey was born January 29, 1835, into the wealthy, influential New England Dwight family in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was John Mumford Woolsey (1796–1870) and mother was Jane Andrews. She spent much of her childhood in New Haven Connecticut after her family moved there in 1852.

Woolsey worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861–1865), after which she started to write. The niece of the author and poet Gamel Woolsey, she never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, Rhode Island, until her death. She edited The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney (1879) and The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney (1880). Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge. Woolsey was born January 29, 1835, into the wealthy, influential New England Dwight family in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was John Mumford Woolsey (1796–1870) and mother was Jane Andrews. She spent much of her childhood in New Haven Connecticut after her family moved there in 1852. Woolsey worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861–1865), after which she started to write.

The niece of the author and poet Gamel Woolsey, she never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, Rhode Island, until her death. She edited The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney (1879) and The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney (1880). She is best known, however, for her classic children's novel, What Katy Did (1872). The fictional Carr family was modeled after the author's own, with Katy Carr inspired by Susan (Sarah) herself, and the brothers and sisters modeled on Coolidge's four younger Woolsey siblings. ...more Writers: leave our favourite children's classics alone Writers: leave our favourite children's classics alone Susan Coolidge's What Katy Did, with Nick Sharratt's new illustration, and Jacqueline Wilson's Katy Kat Brown 20 August 2015 • 1:17pm When food writer Ella Risbridger tweeted the cover of Jacqueline Wilson’s new book, Katy, an adaption of Susan Coolidge’s much-loved 1872 novel What Katy Did , it sparked a discussion on children’s literature that went far beyond the illustration.

Katy is a reimagining of Coolidge’s book, in which a young tomboy – who longs to be good but can never quite manage it – has a life-altering accident and becomes a beacon of grace over the course of her four-year recovery. There was a very real dismay among readers who grew up with the original who believe that Wilson’s readers are being spoon-fed and denied the chance to discover both a wonderful book, and a different type of writing. As Risbridger succinctly put it, “What the f--- is this?” “We have six-year-old kids that can operate iPads, but God forbid they encounter a new idea or word,” says Sarah Perry, author of After Me Comes The Flood . “If kids can cope with invented languages in Harry Potter they can cope with, I dunno, a 'carriage'.” Wilson’s book comes during a plum period of classic novels being reinvented, updated or given sequels.

Big name authors are reinterpreting Shakespeare for the 400th anniversary of his death next year, the James Bond and Agatha Christie estates keep rolling out new books, and there’s barely a genre author left to “adapt” Jane Austen: the day after my wedding, I received a congratulatory copy of Pride and Prejudice and Kitties. And why not be weaned on to a terrific story? Films, TV, and abridged literary classics for children have been doing the rounds for decades. “I think it's at least in part out of a desire to make them more accessible, but I can't help but suspect it's mercenary as well – that tacking on an already well-loved story to your book will help it sell, which it will,” says Janina Matthewson, author of Of Things Gone Astray. “And the thing is, I don't think the original books themselves are all that inaccessible.

There's an elitism about older books, which serves as a barrier, I think, and that needs to be addressed, but I don't think rewriting them is the answer.” The What Katy Did books have been interpreted in many different ways, from screen to print In the case of Katy, Wilson has said that she didn’t just want to overhaul the book, but its message. Classic children’s literature such as Heidi and The Secret Garden has long fed us the ridiculous myth that you can be healed from anything as long as you are good, kind and hang out in gardens. "As a child I thought, ‘oh this is wonderful and inspiring’,” Wilson said at the Hay Festival in May . “As an adult I felt more uncomfortable. Because mostly, if you're unlucky enough to have a spinal injury and you can't walk, you are not going to be able to walk again. "And I thought how irritating for a child if this happened to them. They know full well that if they're very good or very patient or breathe in lots of fresh air, they are still not going to be able to walk again." The question raised by some Coolidge fans has been, well, why not just write about that?

And having read the book last night, I may well ask the same thing. The passages that are most similar to What Katy Did feel frustrating and constrained – Dr Carr is still the most unpleasantly passive-aggressive father in storytelling – but when Wilson breaks away into original story, it jumps into something quite extraordinary. A chapter detailing the immediate aftermath of Katy’s accident is sickeningly graphic. There are brilliant passages about the knock-on effect that life-changing injuries have on families and friends, and some keenly-written information about schools’ legal requirements when working with disabled students. “Personally, I would love a book about a girl who's in an accident and reads What Katy Did and it helps her get through it, you know?” says Matthewson. “One that points to a classic, and deals directly with the weird miraculous recovery thing.” There are exceptions, she acknowledges, such as Bridget Jones’s Diary and Clueless: both brilliant, and both reimaginings of Austen. “I think there's a line to be drawn between inspiration and mimicry, and to be honest, I'm not sure where that is.” With Katy, it’s not clear who is piggybacking on to whose success.

Coolidge’s book has been released with new cover art by Wilson’s long-time collaborator Nick Sharratt. Making the link clear between the books is a generous move, and Katy is packed with references to Dickens, Blyton and other authors that Wilson’s readers might not otherwise encounter, and who they will now hopefully be encouraged to try. Before reading Katy I was very much in favour of reimagining the story for readers who might otherwise never hear of Coolidge. Afterwards, not so much. If you don’t start reading outside your comfort zone when you’re young and adaptable, when will you? As Perry says, “This is how you end up with a generation of people that can only read books with 'characters they can totally relate to'.” Some of Wilson’s Katy readers have written that they have gone on to try What Katy Did, but gave up because it was too hard – or perhaps just too different. This narrowing of a cultural field is not only depressing but it can mean you miss out on some great books.

I put off reading Hanya Yanagihara’s Booker Prize long-listed novel A Little Life for a month because nearly every review I read described it as relentlessly harrowing, and why would I want to do that to myself? I read it expecting a misery memoir, and yes, some passages were difficult. But it was also enchanting, brilliantly characterised and frequently hilarious, and I left that world feeling changed, in the way that a really great story does. “The point of reading, especially fiction, is not to have confirmed what you already think or feel, but to make you think anew about what you already think or feel,” Yanagihara said in a recent interview . Should we let go of our favourites so a new generation can enjoy them in their own way? Yes and no. Let’s encourage children to reach into the past and discover those delights for themselves. Follow Telegraph Books Susan Coolidge Susan Coolidge ( 1835 - 1905 ) Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio and spent much of her childhood in New Haven Connecticut.

She worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861-1865), after which she started to write. Woolsey never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, R.I., until her death. She is best known for her classic children's novel What Katy Did . The fictional Carr family was modelled after the author's own, with Katy Carr inspired by Susan (Sarah) herself, and the brothers and sisters modelled on Coolidge's Woolsey siblings. Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (Susan Coolidge) Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (Susan Coolidge) Sarah Chauncy Woolsey [1] , who wrote under the name Susan Coolidge, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 29, 1835, into a family related not only to Jonathan Edwards and Governor Winthrop, but also to three presidents of Yale: Sarah's great-uncle, Timothy Dwight; her uncle, Theodore Dwight Woolsey; and her cousin, Timothy Dwight. Her childhood and adolescence provided the material for her most famous children's books, the "Katy" series. According to Frances C.

Darling, the Woolsey family home in Cleveland -- five acres, complete with "a pasture with a brook in it and butternut trees and four cows" [2] -- served as the setting for the Carrs' home in What Katy Did, and the Carr children were loosely modeled on Sarah Woolsey and her siblings. Sarah, the eldest, "was uncommonly tall, just [like] Katy Carr, quick-witted, impulsive and full of imagination" (253). Her sister Jane, "small and fair with lovely blue eyes," (253) became Clover in the stories; her brother William was Phil; the youngest sisters Elizabeth and Theodora (frequently called Dora) became Elsie and Johanna, respectively; and an orphaned cousin, Theodorus, who lived with the family, was Dorry. These are the six children referred to in the book's dedication (253). Like other nineteenth-century girls' authors, Coolidge was a creative child, producing stories and poems for her family. She was also well educated, attending a private school in Cleveland and, later, with her sister Jane, a boarding school in Hanover, New Hampshire, the Select Family School for Young Ladies.

[3] The latter, "known to Dartmouth students as 'The Nunnery,'" became the setting for What Katy Did at School. [4] Two of the Woolseys' companions, Helen and Marion Choate, apparently helped shape the character of the Carr girls' close friend, the lively Rose Red. Writing in 1958, Darling noted that the Choate sisters "are still a legend in Boston . . . [and] were known as 'The Double Burners" [blessed with] the gift of quick and quotable wit." (254). In 1855, the Woolsey family relocated to New Haven, Connecticut, where Coolidge lived for fifteen years. During that time, she became close friends with Helen Hunt Jackson (then Helen Hunt). During the first year of the Civil War, the two worked in a government hospital in New Hampshire. According to Darling, Jackson's story "Joe Hale's Red Stockings," is based on this period and contains "thinly disguised" references to Coolidge (255). Coolidge also served as assistant superintendent at Lowell General Hospital in Rhode Island, working there with her cousins Jane and Georgianna during part of the war.

[5] Coolidge continued her friendship with Jackson after the war, and, in the late 1860s, the Woolsey family spent time near Jackson in Newport, Rhode Island. There, Coolidge met other literary figures, including Thomas Wentworth Higginson. In 1870, Coolidge and Jackson vacationed in Bethlehem, New Hampshire. Coolidge had already published several poems and now began serious work on her first book, A New Year's Bargain. Her biographical entry in The Junior Book of Authors notes that she "sketched the outline" while "seated on a fallen tree in a grove" [6] . Woolsey adopted the pseudonym "Susan Coolidge" as an inside joke: her sister Jane had used the pen name "Margaret Coolidge" for some stories, and Sarah decided she would "be a sister of the famous Margaret Coolidge" (Darling 251).

When the book (actually a collection of short stories) was published in 1871, it met with a favorable reception, earning praise from Jean Ingelow and Christina Rossetti, and so impressed a British publisher that he "ordered plates from Roberts Brothers at once" (Kilgour 108, 292). After her father's death in 1870, Coolidge and her family traveled in Europe during the period 1870-72, spending some time in Italy; this, in turn, laid the foundation for what would become the third "Katy" volume, What Katy Did Next. On her return, in 1872, she traveled west with Jackson. Darling notes that although Coolidge "is never mentioned by name in [Jackson's Bits of Travel at Home] . . .

she was the friend who made the long journey to California, shared the horseback rides and campfires in the Yosemite and reveled in the wonderful scenery and the quantities of wild flowers." (257) [7] Darling also credits this trip with providing Coolidge with background scenery for the final volume in the "Katy" series, In the High Valley, set near Colorado Springs (and adds that William, the model for Phil, actually relocated to South Carolina, not Colorado) (258). Circa 1872, the Woolsey family also built a residence -- "a high-ceilinged, book-lined home" [8] -- called "The Jungle," at 93 Rhode Island Avenue, in Newport, Rhode Island, which remained Coolidge's home for the rest of her life. (Newport also served as the setting for one of her later children's books, A Little Country Girl.) Somehow, amid all these activities, Coolidge still found time to write, producing her best-known work, What Katy Did, in 1872 and the sequel, What Katy Did at School, a year later.

As with her first book, these were published by Roberts Brothers, who handled all her work until the firm's demise in 1898 (when Little, Brown, acquired the rights). In his history of the firm, Raymond Kilgour notes that What Katy Did "helped to make RB [sic] synonymous with excellent children's literature" (115). Coolidge may have also helped Roberts Brothers in other ways, for Helen Hunt Jackson changed publishers in 1873, offering Roberts Brothers her Bits of Talk about Home Matters and, thereafter, "remained one of the staunchest authors on the firm's list as well as one of the most successful" (Kilgour 125). Kilgour hypothesizes that the change was due to Coolidge's praise for the firm. Additionally, according to MacDonald, Coolidge was a consulting editor for the firm for years (398).

There was a thirteen year gap between the second and third "Katy" books, with What Katy Did Next coming out in 1886, and the final two books, Clover and In the High Valley, which concentrate on Katy's siblings (and are generally considered weaker works), in 1888 and 1890. In the interim -- and for much of her life -- Coolidge continued to write children's stories, most of which were first published in St. Nicholas under the editorship of Mary Mapes Dodge. She also wrote poems, stories, and travelogues for adults, which appeared in periodicals such as Outlook and Scribner's. In addition to her magazine articles, Coolidge edited and translated several works and collections of letters, and wrote at least a dozen other children's books, including collections of previously-published short stories, such as Barberry Bush (1893), and one volume of verse for young readers. One of her most unusual publications appeared in an innovative line issued by Roberts Brothers, the No Name series. Launched in 1876, the series published new novels without identifying the author.

According to Kilgour, "Each volume contained, at the top of the title page, this quotation from Daniel Deronda: 'Is the gentleman anonymous? Is he a great unknown?'" (140). The first volume, Mercy Philbrick 's Choice, elicited a variety of guesses about the author, with Jean Ingelow suggesting it was Susan Coolidge's work (it wasn't). Instead, Coolidge's work appeared in an 1878 volume titled A Masque of Poets, a poetry collection that included unsigned work by such notables as Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Sidney Lanier. In the late 1880s, after the death of their mother in 1883, Coolidge and her sister Dora, both still unmarried, built a summer home in Onteora, New York. Thereafter, Coolidge divided her time between visiting relatives, trips to Boston, and living in Newport and the Catskills. She died April 9, 1905, at her Newport home.

While several of Coolidge's works were apparently well-liked and often reprinted, none survived as long as the "Katy" books, which were very popular in the United States through the 1920s and are still popular in Great Britain. One Britsh critic, writing in 1936, noted that Coolidge revolutionized the staid nineteenth-century school story, remarking "Into this correct company there came dancing merry, mischievous charming Rose Red and her companions from across the Atlantic. Miss [Sarah] Fielding [author of The Governess] and Mrs. Sherwood would have regarded them with horrified disapproval, but the girls of England loved them." [9] A 1990s reading study in Great Britain found the "What Katy Did" series ranked among the ten most popular reading choices for 12-year-old girls. The first volumes of the series remain in print in both countries. Notes [1] The spelling of Chauncey varies; Darling consistently includes an e; MacDonald omits it. [2] Frances C. Darling, "Susan Coolidge," in The Hewins Lectures, 1947-1962, ed.

Siri Andrews (Boston: The Horn Book, 1963): 252. Future references to this source are parenthetical in the essay. [3] Ruth K. MacDonald's entry on "Sarah Chauncy Woolsey," in Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 42 (Detroit: Gale Research, 1985), refers to the school as "Mrs. Hubbard's Boarding School," 397. Future references to this source are parenthetical in the essay. [4] Raymond L. Kilgour, Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publishers (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press, 1952): 127. Future references to this source are parenthetical in the essay. [5] Frances C. Darling, "Woolsey, Sarah Chauncey," in Notable American Women, 1607-1950, vol. 3, ed. Edward T. Jones (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 1971): 668. [6] "Susan Coolidge," Junior Book of Authors (H. W.

Wilson, 1934): 96. [8] Darling, "Woolsey," 668. [9] Amy Cruse, The Victorians and Their Reading (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1936), 236, quoted in Kilgour, 128. Additional sources consulted American Authors 1600-1900: A Biographical Dictionary of American Literature. Ed. Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1938. National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York: James T. White & Co. Who Was Who in America, with World Notables. 1943; rpt. Chicago: Marquis-Who's Who, Inc., 1968. Vol. 1. Clothes In Books: Katy by Jacqueline Wilson & What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge Katy by Jacqueline Wilson & What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge published 2015, 1872 [Katy is planning her outfit for a disco at school, and goes to her stepmother for help] I asked Izzie’s advice.

‘How about a nice corduroy pinafore dress with a white frilly blouse?’ she said. I stared at her, appalled – and she fell about laughing. ‘I’m teasing you, Katy… I think you’ll be fine in your black jeans and that weird skull t-shirt. But maybe we’ll get you new shoes. Those black plimsolls with the sequins are too small for you now.’ ‘I hate shoes. I just want trainers’ I said. ‘I’ve got an idea,’ said Izzie. ‘What about Doc Martens?’ ‘Oh yes!’ ‘they’ll be expensive, but they can be an early Christmas present from me,’ she said. ‘Oh Izzie, you’re so great! Can they be really bright ones? Red?’ ‘I don’t see why not,’ said Izzie. She knew my size so she went to the shops and bought them for me. ‘They say I can return them if they don’t fit,’ she said, showing me the wonderful scarlet shiny Docs. They fitted perfectly and they meant the world to me.

commentary: The corduroy pinafore certainly had me going, I believed it for a moment – though the heroine in this blogpost actually would be wearing that. There are many books I loved as a child – Little Women, A Little Princess, Wind in the Willows, the works of E Nesbit. But my absolute favourite was What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge, first published in 1872. I got it for Christmas when I was maybe 6 or 7 – a brand-new beautiful hardback. I read it a lot. This is what it looks like now: Although there are other copies in the house (of course – I had to buy my daughter her own copy) this is still my favourite, and when I pick it up I can remember starting to read it on a dark Christmas morning. Four years ago, when this blog started up, What Katy Did at School was one of the first books featured, with a picture that became my avatar for a long time: and What Katy Did followed on soon after.

[Different editions group these two stories differently – for me they were both in my once-beautiful hardback and so they were all one story to me, called What Katy Did.] So when I heard that there was an updated, modern version of the book I had to buy and read it immediately. Jacqueline Wilson is a modern-day author whom I like very much – there’s a blogpost here on another updated classic she wrote, though this gives the impression that that’s all she does. In fact she is a very prolific and very good writer of contemporary and entertaining books. This is an article I wrote about her a while back, in the US online magazine Slate, to introduce her to American readers. One of the points I made is: Her books' tone is not that of so many young adult books—"I understand you, and this book will help you cope." Wilson's tone is, "This is the way life is, now let's see what happens." -- and this is true of the new book Katy. Anyone who has read the original will greatly enjoy spotting the parallels and slight twists on the ur-story in this one. Izzy has become a stepmother (rather than an aunt), and Elsie is a stepsister.

The first half of both books contains scenes from family life – rambunctious and very funny. Katy is a lovely heroine because she is full of ideas and a natural, imaginative leader, but can also be clumsy and awkward, and so she keeps getting into scrapes. Then something terrible happens to her – both books. In the old version, there is a chapter called Dismal Days, and it is the only chapter I used to sometimes miss out in my re-reading. The new book is equally bleak and harrowing and actually made me cry. (The scene with the old lady next door – not paralleled in the 1872 book – was the killer.) The plots start diverging here, and for a reason that I cannot divulge. I was hoping modern-Katy would go off to a boarding-school like old-Katy, and I feel I can say that that does not happen. But the new book is absolutely tremendous: most unusual and beautifully-done, and I loved it and stayed up late (for the second time in a couple of weeks ) to finish it – I couldn’t bear to go to sleep till I found out how it ended for Katy. I read the 460 pages in no time at all.

Highly recommended. I’d be interested to hear from my American friends – is the original What Katy Did still popular there? When I lived in the US my local friends – great book readers all – didn’t remember her from their youth. Was it more of a UK thing, even though the original Katy is of course American? Please let me know your thoughts. Posted by

Question: Who wrote the children's novel 'What Katy Did' and the 'Katy' series of books?
Answer: SUSAN COOLIDGE